Wassily chairs

A good friend in Alfred is helping another friend clear out her first floor so she can move downstairs in the overcrowded family house. This is a scenario too close to my own situation. I don't have any problem with the stairs but I've got too much stuff. I went up yesterday to help put together some stuff for the Op Shop (thrift shop). There, in the kitchen, were a couple of Breuer chairs that were perhaps destined to go to the Op Shop. My first reaction was "they're worth money if they're good." My second reaction was that they need a new home and appreciative owners.

I sent an email to a few friends to see if they knew anyone local who collected mid-century modern furniture. Then, today, as I was walking up South Main Street toward home, I ran into a neighbor who was going into her house for lunch. She works at the museum so I thought she might know someone who would be interested in the chairs. As it turns out, she used to have a pair of Wassily chairs herself, a gift from her grandfather when she was in college. The chairs had gone to another relative as her college life unfolded. So now she has a new pair of the chairs and my friend's chairs have a new home to be part of.

This little transfer has cheered me enormously.

Palladium Bridge

Nothing quite like a Palladium Bridge to brighten the day.

cf http://sharonmccormickdesign.com/2013/07/garden-follies/

New Paltz brutalism update

I blogged in 2013 about a brutalist building at my alma mater -- New Paltz State -- that was going up as I finished college. The building was being stripped, resurfaced, expanded, and otherwise mangled in 2013. Now I've discovered that the civil engineering firm that worked on the renovation has used my "before" photo. Normally, I figure a picture on the web is rather up for grabs -- not really, of course, but there's always a chance. I am disappointed that my photo has been used as if Larsen Engineers -- http://www.larsenengineers.com/Structural_Engineering_Projects.asp -- had fixed the brutalist building and made it solid for another fifty years. Instead, they were part of a process that covered up the wonderful brutalist building and left it quite ordinary.